Social psychology is directly related to sociology, since both seek to achieve a better understanding of society and its members. Its objective is to help understand the complex dynamics of certain mental processes, emotions, behaviors and social relationships. However, there are some important differences between both disciplines. In this Psychology-Online article, we tell you some of the differences between social psychology and sociology.
Definition of social psychology and sociology
The Social psychology is an area of psychology and studies how society (cultural norms, media, etc.) influences the behaviors, thoughts and emotions of citizens. Starting from this definition, we could say that social psychology focuses on the factors that make people act in one way or another in the presence or absence of certain people, including the conditions that can trigger certain emotions, behaviors and actions. Additionally, social psychologists study how these emotions, beliefs, thoughts, and behaviors are formed and how they affect social interactions.
Sociology studies
Sociology is the social science whose objective is study society and its origins, organizations, institutions and social networks using critical analysis and empirical methods. It is a knowledge that seeks to explain change, order and social disorder. In this context, sociologists focus on social classes, racial divisions, religions, family and society, etc. Unifying this great diversity of topics is the goal of sociologists to understand how people are shaped by cultural and social norms.
Differences between social psychology and sociology
It is an area of psychology and focuses on how certain situations influence people’s behavior. While sociology is also responsible for the study of society, but from a broader perspective, it seeks to explain certain general aspects of society.
Some differences between social psychology and sociologyare:
- Social psychology is a discipline of psychology while sociology is not.
- Social psychology is a more specific area of knowledge if we compare it to sociology, which is broader.
- The approaches and methods employees are different
- Social psychology uses situational variables and scientific methods (experimentation) while sociology uses statistics, population observations, censuses and other methods.
- The focus on how society influences and affects people’s behaviors, thoughts and emotions while sociology analyzes the origin of society, organizational networks… to explain important social aspects.
- A social psychologist can work in consulting companies, non-governmental organizations, social welfare. While the sociologist can work in positions related to human rights, legislative assistant, communication, etc.
Differences between social psychology compared to other disciplines
- Sociology vs social psychology. As we said before, sociology focuses on society as a whole. Sociologists are interested in the cultures and institutions that influence social and individual behavior. Social psychologists are interested in the variables that affect individual behaviors within society.
What does a sociologist do?
Sociologists try to explain behavior through a little experimentation while psychologists investigate and conduct more experiments with the aim of gathering more evidence to achieve more precision and a scientific explanation of behaviors. Although both study directly related aspects and have similar ideas, they offer a different perspective on human behavior.
- Personality vs social psychology. Both try to explain the behavior. However, they are different disciplines. Personality psychologists focus on what makes people unique or what makes people think or feel in certain ways and thus constitute their personality. While social psychologists seek answers about how people perceive and influence others. Personality psychology focuses on individual differences between one another, and social psychology focuses on the aspects of society that influence the individual.
- Clinical vs social psychology. Clinical psychology is the discipline of psychology that focuses on evaluating and treating mental and behavioral disorders. Clinical psychologists establish a proper diagnosis and develop a therapy plan for people seeking professional help. To achieve this, if necessary depending on the case, clinical psychology will use useful aspects of social, cognitive, genetic psychology, etc. Social psychology has a more specific objective (described above), while clinical psychology uses concepts from various disciplines to explain human behavior.
Study sociology or social psychology?
Although both disciplines overlap in their study of human behavior, we have seen that there are some differences between them.
- If you are interested in searching and studying the different ways through which societies are formeddevelop and organize at a general level, that is, at a macro level, your option is to study sociology.
- If you want to specialize in help people or individuals at a micro level, studying behavioral reactions and individual mental aspects influenced by society. Your option is social psychology.
Despite their differences, it must be taken into account that in reality there are numerous ways through which sociology and social psychology studies relate and help each other to achieve a greater and better understanding of human behavior and society. , as well as their interaction. However, if you feel that your initial choice is not the right one, you can always consider go from sociology to psychology social and vice versa.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
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